Chapter Thirteen: Fencing 搪塞
"If I knew myself, I'd run away." –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I hurriedly tossed my school uniform over my head first thing when I woke up. I wasn't able to get much sleep last night; I was too excited about the fencing tryouts after school. I also was confused over all the things I heard in the living room before I was sent away. As I walked down the stairs, I grabbed the tape recorder that I put at the top last night. Maybe listening to this will answer a few questions. I'll listen to it later. I bounded down the stairs, knowing I was up a little too early. I walked into the kitchen to fix myself breakfast, since I actually had time. I was surprised to see Kish sitting at the table hunkered over a cup of coffee.
"You're up pretty early." I cocked my head to the side. He looked up sleepily.
"Up? I didn't go to sleep at all." He yawned, taking a sip of the coffee. He made a weird face as he drank it and a "Blugh!" sound.
"If you don't like coffee, why are you drinking it?" I asked as I sat down at the table with a bowl of cereal. He looked at the cup.
"I'm not really sure." He chuckled. I laughed along with him.
"So, is your neck still sore from yesterday?" he said, eyeing me.
"No, not…" I started until I realized what he meant. He raised an eyebrow.
"How…how do you know?" I whispered.
"Do you honestly think that I'm that stupid? I recognize people's faces, not by what they wear. And I could just guess by all your suspicious behavior." He smiled.
"Please don't tell anyone!" I begged.
"I won't – On one condition."
"What?"
"Tell me how you turned yourself into a Mew under Ryou's nose. I mean, with all those security cameras and everything. It's my understanding that he has state-of-the-art equipment."
"Well, it was actually an accident. I was trapped in his lab and I was bored so I just started pressing buttons on the machine. I tried to shut off the machine, but I couldn't figure out how." I explained.
"Ah, well, I would be careful, if I were you. I can only imagine what Ryou'd do if he found out." Kish warned, trying to sound serious, but his voice had a slight tone of amusement. At that moment, Ryou walked into the kitchen.
"If Ryou found out about what?" Ryou raised his eyebrow suspiciously. Think fast.
"If you…uh, found out why I wanted to join the fencing team!" I lied off the top of my head.
"Okay, tell me why." he said patiently. Damn. Okay, think faster.
"Well, um, there's this really cute guy and--." He stopped me with a wave of his hand.
"I don't wanna hear any more." He said as he turned and walked out of the kitchen. I gave Kish an evil look and gathered my books together. This superhero stuff wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. When I arrived at school, I was really relieved to see that Takara was waiting for me on our usual spot on the stairs.
"Hey, Takara! Are you feeling better?" I asked. She sniffled.
"I guess so. I just came because I didn't want to fall farther behind." she said. My eyes drifted toward the fencing team. Takara followed my gaze.
"Hm, they seem to be doing pretty good this morning, actually." she observed.
"I'm going to try out." I said suddenly.
"What? Why?" she asked, shocked.
"Oh, you know…Just for the fun of it." I said. Takara smiled.
"Would this have anything to do with Kiyoshi?" she guessed.
"Maybe…" I blushed. All she did was laugh.
"Sorry, but you have to be pretty good to get on the fencing team. Have you ever held a lance in your life?" she laughed.
"Actually, I have. And I'm going to try out." I grinned determinedly.
"Whatever floats your boat, Komori." Takara sighed. After school was over, I went into the gym for tryouts. Looking around I could see I was the only girl, which was a little intimidating. The fencing coach was in the middle of the gym, sitting with the current members of the team. Kiyoshi saw I was there and gave me a wink.
"Okay, everybody! If you're trying out for the fencing team, come over here!" the coach yelled. Everyone jumbled together in a semi-circle around the coach.
"Plant it!" the coach yelled. We all sat down immediately. The coach grabbed a pile of papers and handed them out to each of us.
"This year I'm looking for star-quality players! There's seven slots open right now, and that means only seven people are going to make the cut for the team. Tryouts will be based, as said on the announcement yesterday, solely on skill and sportsmanship. We also look into your grades to see if you're passing all of your classes. We don't make any exceptions. Today we can have about half of you tryout and have the other half tryout tomorrow." the coach said. He walked to the front of the group.
"Who can tryout today?" the coach asked. I and many others raised their hands. The coach noticed me amidst the crowd of boys; he just shook his head.
"Go to the locker rooms and suit up. When you get out, come sign your name and tryout number on the clipboard located on the desk over there." He concluded. I went into the girl's locker room and changed into a white fencing outfit. It wasn't as hot as I thought it would be, actually. I felt like an astronaut, with the white suit and everything. When I walked out, a guy from the fencing team handed me a number and said, "Good Luck!"
"You'll need it…" I heard him grumble after he thought I was out of earshot. I strolled over to the clipboard and wrote:
Hoshi, Komori. Number 10
After I signed in, I stood at the wall and waited with the rest of the guys who were trying out. "Okay, everybody, pin your number onto your back and then put your helmet on." the coach instructed. I did as he said and watched, amused, as some of the other guys struggled to get their helmets on. I looked over at Kiyoshi, who was standing at the center of the gym with the coach, and noticed he was stifling a laugh as he watched everyone slide on their helmets.
"Okay, now I'll call all the numbers off in numerical order. When your number's called, come to the center of the gym and face your opponent, which, in this case, is one of the fencing team's captain, Kiyoshi Yamamoto." My eyes widened. How did they expect anyone to have a chance against Kiyoshi? I heard a few guys muttering about how wimpy Kiyoshi looked. Indeed, he did look small, but they didn't take into account how fast he could move. They're in for a big surprise. The coach called everyone up one-by-one. I psyched myself up for challenging Kiyoshi. I was pretty nervous since I'd only held a lance one time.
"Aw, just put some ice on that, Number Nine… Okay, moving on! Number Ten! You're up!" the coach yelled. I took a deep breath and stepped up to Kiyoshi. We both prepared ourselves to lunge after the coach gave us the go.
"Aaaaand…GO!" the coach yelled. Kiyoshi and I struck out at each other. Our lances clashed as we moved through the stances. He swung his sword and nearly hit me in the shoulder, but I jumped back. I lunged forward and struck his in the stomach with my lance; he fell to the ground, hitting the floor with an "Oomf!"
"Excellent job, Number Ten!" the coach said as he wrote something down on his clipboard. I ran over to the locker room to change out of the fencing outfit. When I came out again, there was only one person left to tryout. Even though you could leave after you tried out, I decided to hang around so I could talk with Kiyoshi after the tryouts. Kiyoshi, yet again, beat his opponent up pretty badly. But I guess the guy deserved it; he was one of the guys who said Kiyoshi looked wimpy. Kiyoshi removed his helmet and breathed deeply; he looked pretty exhausted.
"Okay, everybody. The people who made the cut will be posted day after tomorrow before school. Now get outta here!" the coach said, shooing us off. I went up to Kiyoshi.
"You put up a pretty good fight, Kiyoshi." I smiled; he looked at me, amused.
"Let me guess: You were Number Ten?" he laughed.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked.
"You're the only person who's ever been able to knock me off my feet." Kiyoshi said as he ran his fingers through his raven hair.
"Yeah, sorry about that…" I apologized. He looked at the ground.
"Oh, don't be! …Um, Komori, if you're not doing anything on Saturday, we could, um… go do something together…" he said shyly. I smiled.
"I'd like that." I said shyly. He looked at me with his wide clear green eyes.
"Saturday it is then." Kiyoshi said happily, and walked to the locker room. I was so happy that he asked me out; I practically skipped the whole way to the limo. Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm going out on Saturday! With a hot guy! YES! YES! YES! When I got home I was so happy that I didn't care when Ryou got mad at me for being so late.
"Okay, Ryou. I'm sorry." I said smiling as I danced around in circles. I danced into the kitchen with Ryou staring after me.
"Weirdo." I heard him mutter. Ichigo was sitting at the table with Masaya, looking over some sort of blueprint. Ichigo grinned at the happiness radiating off me.
"Well, you're unusually chipper today. What happened?" she asked curiously. I smiled and said, "Only the best thing in the whole world!" I glided out of the kitchen with a pear in my mouth. I was so blissful that I didn't notice Keiichiro and crashed right into him.
"Woah! Watch where you're going, Komori." Keiichiro warned. At this time in my life, things were better than they had ever been. I couldn't see how it could get any better than this.
